FAYETTEVILLE -- Austin Allen did nothing in Saturday's first scrimmage of training camp to relinquish his grip on the starting quarterback job at Arkansas.
However, the activity behind Allen on the depth chart provided new twists, as offensive coordinator Dan Enos continued to evaluate Rafe Peavey, Ty Storey, Cole Kelley and Ricky Town.
Allen, the junior who held the top job all spring and coordinated passing sessions through the summer, took all his reps with the starting offense on Saturday at Reynolds Razorback Stadium and completed 14 of 19 passes for 151 yards.
"I think the play of Austin that I've been seeing in practice came out today," Coach Bret Bielema said after the scrimmage. "He has been very, very confident and very, very aware of his offense that's around him.
"I thought he got he ball around and distributed it well. I didn't see the numbers, but I know a lot of different guys caught the ball. [He had] different types of reads and reactions."
Allen was in on 46 snaps, by unofficial count, and completed throws to eight players: Drew Morgan, Keon Hatcher, Jeremy Sprinkle, Dominique Reed, Rawleigh Williams, Hayden Johnson, Cody Hollister and Jared Cornelius. Reed had the team's lone drop, on an Allen pass.
One of Allen's incomplete passes occurred during the first red-zone series, which started at the 21. On third and 6 from the 16, Allen couldn't hit wide-open senior receiver Drew Morgan. The red-zone stall resulted in Cole Hedlund's missed 35-yard field goal. Allen bounced back to direct a seven-play, 75 yard touchdown drive, completing 2 of 2 passes for 27 yards.
Redshirt freshman Storey appeared to make the biggest move behind Allen, as he took double the snaps of Peavey -- 28 to 14, in an unofficial count -- and completed 5 of 5 passes for 62 yards, including a 9-yard touchdown completion to tight end Cheyenne O'Grady in red zone work. Storey faced constant pressure from the second-team defensive line, as he was the recipient of five "sacks."
Peavey, a redshirt sophomore who underwent minor back surgery in mid July, completed 3 of 3 passes for 27 yards. The redshirt sophomore was in on a touchdown series in red zone work, capped by Deon Stewart's 4-yard end around score.
Kelley, a 6-7 true freshman, had an up-and-down performance with the second unit and the younger players. Kelley hit Cameron Colbert with a 68-yard touchdown on a blown assignment in the secondary with his second pass. He finished 5 of 12 for 116 yards and threw the day's lone interception, a diving grab by Britto Tutt in tight coverage against Tobias Enlow at the goal line, on the final play of the workout.
"I think what Dan has been trying to do is even [the reps] out," Bielema said.
Bielema said offensive coordinator Dan Enos was trying to balance out the reps for the quarterbacks.
"Today we wanted to to give them several plays in a row to capitalize on it," Bielema said. "I thought Ty showed some good things today. Ty has got so many intangibles. He understands the huddle, he understands procedure and what we're asking him to do. I thought he's had a nice fall camp.
"Rafe has been able to go in the one-a-days, but he can't go in the two-a-days just because his back gets a little sore. Not quite 100 percent, through no fault of his own, just maybe isn't quite where he wants to be with the zip on the ball and all of that other stuff. That might limit him a little bit."
Enos said last week that he'd like to see one of the quarterbacks seize hold of the No. 2 job.
"They've all had up and down days," Enos said. "No one's separated themselves yet."
The Razorbacks resume two-a-day workouts today, 19 days away from the Sept. 3 season opener against Louisiana Tech.
The players participated in fan day activities on Sunday.
Sports on 08/15/2016